World War II Reefers in U.S. Navy Service
The USS Mizar (AF-12) was a Mizar-class refrigerator ship and passenger liner (Cruise ship) taken over by the U.S. Maritime Commission in the summer of 1941 under the authority of Public Law 101, 77th Congress and Executive Order 8771, 6 June 1941. She was taken over by the U.S. Navy on a bare-boat charter basis on 2 June 1941 from the United Fruit Company (their fleet of about 85 ships was one of the largest civilian fleets in the world in 1941) for use during World War II. The USS Mizar normally carried up to 95 cruise ship passengers and a crew to ports in Central America and then would return to the United States with passengers and a cargo of refrigerated bananas and miscellaneous cargo. The USS Mizar was part of United Fruit Company's Great White Fleet and originally named SS Quiriqua.
The USS Mizar was built in 1932 for United Fruit Co. at Bethlehem Steel, Quincy, Massachusetts and originally named SS Quiriqua. The Mizar class ships were built during the Great Depression with a subsidy provided by the U.S. Mail and were often called "mail" boats. The SS Quiriqua was converted to the USS Mizar for Naval service by the addition of one single 5"/38 caliber gun, four 3"/50 caliber guns for anti-aircraft (AA) and anti submarine use and up to eight Oerlikon 20 mm cannon AA guns at Brewer's Drydock Co., Staten Island, N.Y. The USS Mizar was commissioned as a naval ship 14 June 1941 with CDR. E. D. Walbridge in command. The USS Mizar was manned by a crew of Merchant mariners and a number of United States Navy Armed Guard sailors assigned to man the guns on the ship. The Guards were assisted by the "civilian" Merchant mariners working the ship and all took equal risk of being sunk by submarine or aircraft; but only the Armed Guard were judged eligible for G.I. Bill benefits.
With some modification to the ship, she was able to carry a number of troops in addition to her refrigerated stores. She served in the Atlantic War and the Pacific War and came back home with four battle stars to her credit. Decommissioned from the Navy, 1 April 1946, at Baltimore, Maryland she was returned to United Fruit Company who renamed her the SS Quiriqua. Her last operation after decommissioning was her old job of delivering bananas and cruise ship passengers for the United Fruit Company. She was scrapped in 1964 as SS SAMALA.
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